Meal Prep Basics

If You Want To Lose Fat And Build Muscle This Year, You Gotta Try This!

If you combine meal prep with a calorie-tracking app like MyFitnessPal, you have a simple, painless way to track your macronutrients and calories, and that means, at the end of the week, there should be no surprises when you step on the scale.

Have you ever wondered how bodybuilders step on stage with single-digit bodyfat levels? Sure, discipline plays a big role, but you’d better believe that meal preparation and planning are the keys to their success.

What You Need
Apart from the basic cooking skills required (consult YouTube if you lack even these), there are some handy aids to make the most of meal prep. A crock pot helps, as does a rice cooker and a baking pan — anything that will help you cook large amounts of food painlessly. The next essential is a food scale. You can pick one up on Amazon or at your local big-box store for between $20-$40. Don’t try to estimate how much food you’re cooking; use a scale and take the guesswork out entirely.

The “big purchase” that you likely don’t already possess is some form of storage. Glass and plastic Tupperware work, as do the kind of take-out containers restaurants use. These should be reusable, dishwasher- and microwave-safe and large enough to contain your meals. Expect to pay between $20-$50 for enough of these to last throughout the week.

Meal prep is a tool. By itself, it won’t lead to you to gain muscle or lose fat. But combine it with some basic knowledge about the human body (how much protein you need, how many calories you should be consuming), and it gives you the power of control. It takes away the guesswork and inaccuracies of eating out and puts the onus on you to eat what you need, in the quantities you need, to achieve the results you want. For inspiration on what to cook, check out Reddit’s /r/MealPrepSunday, a community of dedicated meal-preppers who have discovered the benefits of planning their diets in advance.